Analysis: Clinton impeachment shadows GOP lawsuit

By DAVID ESPO
Associated PressPublished:July 30, 2014 4:00AM

WASHINGTON -- The last time Republicans unleashed impeachment proceedings against a Democratic president, they lost five House seats in an election they seemed primed to win handily.
Memories of Bill Clinton and the campaign of 1998 may help explain why Speaker John Boehner and the current GOP leadership want no part of such talk now, although conservatives increasingly clamor for it. And also why President Barack Obama's White House seems almost eager to stir the impeachment pot three months before midterm elections.
Republicans have already "opened the door for impeachment" with their plans to sue the president over allegedly failing to carry out the health care law, White House aide Dan Pfeiffer told reporters. In something of a dare last week, he also said any further action Obama takes on his own on immigration will "up the likelihood" of a GOP-led move to remove Obama from office.